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Time now in Japan is Wednesday just before ten a.m. So we actually have about 39 hours before it starts.

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Kimura Juri木村珠莉 Joined Tokyo Voice Actors' Co-op in 2011, did voice-overs for corporate presentations. Anime bit parts 2013-14. Stars in Shirobako as Miyamori, will star in Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (spring). Enjoys music, looking at Buddha images, reading. Used to work at a bookstore. Says she is a maudlin drunk. Age unknown.Hashihime blog | Twitter@nakanokimi |

Early in this thread, people commented how young-looking Saki is for her age (22). The same thing was said about Hagu in Honey & Clover.

I think I have discovered why Umino Chika draws certain characters that way: they are idealized versions of how she looked herself when she was that age.

Umino-sensei avoids having her photo taken. She usually substitutes her mascot character, a little stuffed bear called Kuma-chan. But I did find one photo of her, taken for an interview, with the interviewers. Next to that is Kuma-chan:

For one thing, you can see a reason why she doesn't like to be photographed: she is not either a stunning beauty or a mature-looking businesswoman. More a dumpy and nervous-looking artist/author.

But that round face and short stature probably made her seem young when she was in college. Like Hagu and Saki:

I'm not sure how old Umino-sensei is. She keeps that out of the press, too. Her first published work was around the year 2000, apparently, but she worked in a design house before that.

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Kimura Juri木村珠莉 Joined Tokyo Voice Actors' Co-op in 2011, did voice-overs for corporate presentations. Anime bit parts 2013-14. Stars in Shirobako as Miyamori, will star in Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (spring). Enjoys music, looking at Buddha images, reading. Used to work at a bookstore. Says she is a maudlin drunk. Age unknown.Hashihime blog | Twitter@nakanokimi |

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This show is almost certainly the most interesting work to come out this season and I'm sure it's in no small part thanks to the fact that it is an original in house produced series, but there is just one problem. Like most Production I.G works I absolutely cannot stand the character design. Especially Saki's. I'm not against experimental and unorthodox characters designs (I liked Casshern Sins designs for example) and in fact encourage them, but this is just.....wow......I don't even know how to put it.

A nice mix of exposition, budding romance, Saki taking the plunge, and magical mystery murder. Tug your heartstrings when Akira seems to walk away. Saki is a real girl, deciding to go too far and stick with the guy who has no memories (which he tells her in this ep). Hayamin simply has a beautiful voice, and she is using it to give us this bold waif pretty well, it seems to me. Matching character to plot and character design. As is Kimura Ryouhei as Akira.

It should come as no surprise that I love the character design, including Saki. For me, that is not the problem with Production IG shows. Their problem has been slow and impactless story development, for me.

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Kimura Juri木村珠莉 Joined Tokyo Voice Actors' Co-op in 2011, did voice-overs for corporate presentations. Anime bit parts 2013-14. Stars in Shirobako as Miyamori, will star in Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (spring). Enjoys music, looking at Buddha images, reading. Used to work at a bookstore. Says she is a maudlin drunk. Age unknown.Hashihime blog | Twitter@nakanokimi |

A nice mix of exposition, budding romance, Saki taking the plunge, and magical mystery murder. Tug your heartstrings when Akira seems to walk away. Saki is a real girl, deciding to go too far and stick with the guy who has no memories (which he tells her in this ep). Hayamin simply has a beautiful voice, and she is using it to give us this bold waif pretty well, it seems to me. Matching character to plot and character design. As is Kimura Ryouhei as Akira.

It should come as no surprise that I love the character design, including Saki. For me, that is not the problem with Production IG shows. Their problem has been slow and impactless story development, for me.

Well the way out of the character design choice being unappealing for me lies in whether this show actually does turn out to be a superflat piece, which seems like it may actually be a possibility with all the focus on Japan's decay in this shows continuity over the years and how Saki sees the White House as symbolic of the centre of the world. Not to mention how both Akira and Saki appear have been born in the last year of the Showa era, which is seen as the big cultural gap and the last tie Japan had to the old imperial ways in certain circles. It's like they are teetering on the edge between the old ways of Japanese nationalistic pride and the new ways of deference to American will and it even comes through in some of the actions they take in the first episode and their passive aggressive ways out of being chased by the cops.

We'll see, but so far it isn't clear if Saki's fetishized yet distorted character design (lolifying a 22 year old, and having her display both idealized/submissive/childish and measured/sensible/mature traits)is meant to be a parody of her being caught in Japanese cultural limbo or if the cards just sort of fell that way and it's moe pandering to get otaku to watch the show.

We'll see, but so far it isn't clear if Saki's fetishized yet distorted character design (lolifying a 22 year old, and having her display both idealized/submissive/childish and measured/sensible/mature traits)is meant to be a parody of her being caught in Japanese cultural limbo or if the cards just sort of fell that way and it's moe pandering to get otaku to watch the show.

I hardly see Chika's designs as fetishized. Plus this show is airing in a timeslot made for REGULAR tv viewers not otaku (nor fujoshi for that matter). So I don't think there is much to worry about.

When he kills the third guy, the witness, you can see that the gunshots actually come from a police patrol on a nearby street.
So basically we had this guy calling Juiz and ordering her to kill the guys, and probably Juiz was passing the target info to whoever was on the patrol, who was the actual killer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaioshin Sama

We'll see, but so far it isn't clear if Saki's fetishized yet distorted character design (lolifying a 22 year old, and having her display both idealized/submissive/childish and measured/sensible/mature traits)is meant to be a parody of her being caught in Japanese cultural limbo or if the cards just sort of fell that way and it's moe pandering to get otaku to watch the show.

noitaminA doesn't target the Otaku, so that's not what they're aiming for. Besides, these designs are pretty similar to those from Honey and Clover, which was adapted from a Josei manga (female-oriented manga) and was the first anime premiered in noitaminA. With this series, they're just doing what they always do: targeting a non-otaku adult audience, with a special care for their female audience.

Well the way out of the character design choice being unappealing for me lies in whether this show actually does turn out to be a superflat piece, which seems like it may actually be a possibility with all the focus on Japan's decay in this shows continuity over the years and how Saki sees the White House as symbolic of the centre of the world. Not to mention how both Akira and Saki appear have been born in the last year of the Showa era, which is seen as the big cultural gap and the last tie Japan had to the old imperial ways in certain circles. It's like they are teetering on the edge between the old ways of Japanese nationalistic pride and the new ways of deference to American will and it even comes through in some of the actions they take in the first episode and their passive aggressive ways out of being chased by the cops.

We'll see, but so far it isn't clear if Saki's fetishized yet distorted character design (lolifying a 22 year old, and having her display both idealized/submissive/childish and measured/sensible/mature traits)is meant to be a parody of her being caught in Japanese cultural limbo or if the cards just sort of fell that way and it's moe pandering to get otaku to watch the show.

1. I'm betraying my ignorance, but I don't understand the thing about superflat, which I thought was a style of animation.

2. I think you're right that they are saying something with the birthdates of Saki and others in the show, but I'm still not sure what. By the way, I think the old way is deference to America, and the new way is nationalistic pride, but we'll see how this show plays that aspect.

3. Your explanation of the charades as catering to an audience (you use the expression "moe pandering") is reasonable, and probably part of the truth. But it is also true, as I posted earlier (and others have just posted), that Umino Chika -- a woman who writes manga considered josei -- has a tendency to draw some female characters this way. I feel it as showing the female side of the contradiction between child and adult from the inside: one doesn't quite feel capable, but one can still take bold action in the adult world, especially to follow one's desires. Remember that this show is in the Noitamina timeslot, which has a high female viewership.

I find the tension in the contrast between the voice and character design on the one hand and Saki's boldness on the other to be one of the attractions of this show. I see it less as parody than as psychological reality. There are lots of male characters -- Morita and Akira for two -- who show similar contradictions in other ways.

And thanks to Kazu-kun for the spoilered explanation. I was wondering what the significance of that car was.

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Kimura Juri木村珠莉 Joined Tokyo Voice Actors' Co-op in 2011, did voice-overs for corporate presentations. Anime bit parts 2013-14. Stars in Shirobako as Miyamori, will star in Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku (spring). Enjoys music, looking at Buddha images, reading. Used to work at a bookstore. Says she is a maudlin drunk. Age unknown.Hashihime blog | Twitter@nakanokimi |

I particularly enjoyed the boat scene... though they almost dragged it too long.

How I find Akira's and Saki's personalities hasn't changed since ep 1. To me, Saki seems fairly normal - there doesn't seem to be any especially unusual parts of her personality. She seems to be a bit of a romantic (in the general sense), and has a bit of a broader outlook than most. She also seems more empathetic than most people. While she has somewhat left her childhood behind she's not yet fully adult - sometimes she shows a more mature side and sometimes she shows a more childish side. I wonder if she's had a boyfriend before - doesn't feel like it, unless it was quite a long time ago. She's been mostly pretty happy but doesn't seem to have a strong goal in life.

Akira's organisation is still quite a mystery. After the first ep, I wondered if they were like "lawful neutral" (from viewer's perspective) but more like "lawful good" from their own perspective. But now I'm not so sure. You certainly have to wonder about an organisation that

Spoiler for ep 2:

has a young man with $80m on his phone with a duty to spend it (not a right - a duty). I sure wouldn't want to go up against them though.